Static
by bluepianos
Summary: When a furious storm brews over Destiny Islands, Kairi, Sora and Riku find themselves stuck with each other in the cave, not moving, unable to do anything or go anywhere. Now. What to do, what to do…  First PULL submission for bookaholic711's challenge.


**Pairing**: none  
**Category**: Kingdom Hearts  
**Rating**: PG-13 [For swearing]  
**Summary**: When a furious storm brews over Destiny Islands, Kairi, Sora and Riku find themselves stuck with each other in the cave, not moving, unable to do anything or go anywhere. Now. What to do, what to do...

**Static**

"Goddammit," Riku muttered. He slapped the radio one last time before leaning back on his heels and sighing in defeat. The hissing and continuous static that emanated from the radio didn't falter for a second. There were no voices. There was no news. There was just them. One, two, three. And the static.

And the rain.

Sora whipped his head around in the air to rid his hair of the rain droplets that stubbornly held onto each of his umber locks. He wrung out the hood of his vest and considered taking it off completely and spend the night in only his t-shirt. Sora glanced at Riku. The sixteen-year-old was still playing with the knobs of the radio, trying fruitlessly to get some sort of signal. They were only half a mile away from the mainland for Mickey's sake!

"Riku, it's pointless. I think we should just spend the night here," Kairi spoke up tiredly, still trying to squeeze all the water off her yellow summer dress. Her new summer dress. Kairi wasn't much of a fashionista following the war and after the boys returned but Selphie bought her this beautiful dress just for the sake of giving Kairi something. And Kairi did not like getting her gifts wet, especially such a lovely one.

Riku held up a finger at Kairi. _Wait_. Then he smacked the radio again. Sora rolled his eyes.

"By the time we get a signal, that thing's gonna be broken if you keep doing that," he noted. Riku mock-glared at him but finally shoving the still-crackling radio back against the cave wall and slumped onto his bottom, one leg stretched out while he drew the other up to rest his arm on his knee, having given up. Kairi smirked. The typical Riku pose.

She walked to the makeshift drawer and the sack of supplies that she, Riku and Sora had all gathered together for the cave and started to look for food. Their theory was that, if another war was really coming and hit them when they least expected it, the cave would be their shelter and would be their first and foremost rendezvous point for food, a roof over their heads, and safety.

But for now, it would have to act as a sanctuary, maybe even a home for God knows how long.

Sora walked as close as he could to the small entrance of the cave. He bent down on his knees to look through the opening and jumped back up in shock when a crash of lightning threw him away from the opening. He heard Kairi giggle and turned around.

"Oh, yeah? Let's see _you_ check the weather, then!" he challenged. Kairi stopped laughing but continued to smile and resumed searching for food. Riku rolled his eyes.

"It's pointless, Sora. We're stuck here 'til the storm clears up." Riku's eyes followed his best friends movement as Sora dumped himself onto the ground face down.

Kairi glanced over at Sora and looked at Riku questioningly. He mouthed, "Soccer tomorrow," and she shaped her mouth into a little O in understanding. She pointed at Riku, mouthing, "You?" and Riku shook his head, "Not tomorrow."

Kairi grinned at the amount of conversation she and Riku were capable of even without saying anything. Yes, she'd lost them. Damn right, she'd lost both of her best friends for two years without so much as a "goodbye" or a "sorry" or a Terminator-like "I'll be back," not even an "I'll send you a postcard"—which had to be the lamest goodbye ever. (Everyone knows that you'll never get any postcards.) But even then. She'd have been content with an "I'll send you a postcard" goodbye.

But still. She was astounded that after all this time, the two hadn't changed at all. Well, physically, of course they had. Kairi didn't spend one minute of her life thanking and asking the gods above, "What in Kingdom Heart's name did I do to deserve two fine young men to be my best friends?" Because they _were_ fine young men and she was damn lucky that they didn't change at all. Sora was still care-free. Maybe a little more mature now, judging by all the fighting and war he'd seen. But he was still Sora. Riku... well, Riku'd gone through a lot more and Kairi didn't think that all three of them were in a position to really talk about the dark shadows they'd all slipped into during the entire journey to save Kingdom Hearts.

For now though, Kairi was satisfied with Sora bumming off and moaning about missing his soccer game (_Look, Sora, the mainland must be in the same conditions we're in. I don't think **anybody'll** be playing soccer anytime soon,_ Kairi thought.) and Riku forever being Riku as he helped her take out three bottles of water, two cans of peaches, and enough strips of beef jerky to last for the night.

"Who stocked all the food again?" Riku asked. He'd been in charge of bringing sleeping items, pillows, blankets, extra jackets and the like.

"Sora," was Kairi's simple reply. Riku chuckled, looking back inside the icebox. How he had managed to get the icebox and all the food through that little opening in the cave, he'd never know. But he knew that Sora'd picked up some tricks and learned a few lessons throughout the past two years. Apparently they were paying off.

Kairi grabbed the cans of peaches and beef jerky. She then walked over to Sora and nudged his still body with the toe of her shoe.

"Sora." She could hear the thunder rolling above them.

"Sora." No reply. Riku swore that the rain had started pounding harder outside.

"Sora, maybe you could help out?" Sora muttered something incomprehensible and Kairi glared down at his form.

"Sora, you lazy bum, get up off your ass and get us some firewood." Sora looked up, startled.

"What?" Kairi asked, narrowing her eyes at his cyan blue ones. "The firewood's over by the entrance, silly. Do you want us to freeze toni—"

"Kairi, did you just say 'ass'?" Riku spoke up, dumbfounded. Kairi turned around to look at him, looking very much like a little Kindergartener who'd just been caught calling someone 'stupid'.

"I-I... well, while you guys were gone... Tidus and Wakka always—you know how they are, always shooting their mouths off and I guess-I... I picked up some words..." Kairi faltered off, at a loss for words.

"Kai, it's okay. It's just... we've never heard you say anything even the slightest bit crude before," Sora laughed. "You always blushed at the word 'dick'." He pushed himself onto his feet and gathered enough firewood for the night like a good puppy. Now it was Kairi's turn to slump onto the floor of the cave. The trio was fortunate that the cave's floor was actually sand, not stone.

"I swear now, okay? People change." Kairi reasoned pathetically. Riku smiled at her and sat himself down at her right side.

"Of course they do. Like you. You didn't blush when Sora said 'dick,'" Riku joked. Kairi shoved him with her shoulder.

"Get some blankets, you ass," she teased. Riku really laughed this time, but did as she commanded anyway. Kairi looked down at the sand for a second and couldn't help but allow the small smile on her face expand into a grin. The storm above them cracked once with thunder but she laughed silently before retrieving some matches.

"Is _this_ enough, your loyal highness?" Sora croaked, carrying what looked to be fifty or more pounds of firewood.

"Whoa. Sora. That's ... that's more than enough. Do you need help?" Kairi asked, shocked at his body's true capability and strength.

"What, you think I can't handle this?" his voice had returned to normal and had eased back into its easy-going and teasing nature. Kairi rolled her eyes.

"If you're so cocky, then you light the fire," she challenged. Sora was about to pull out the keyblade when, "_manually_." She shoved the matches into his hand and sat down to open the peaches.

"Jeez, Kairi, when'd you get to be so demanding and ... independent?" Riku piped up, covering her shoulders with a blanket before tossing one over Sora's head and laying his own on the floor and sitting on it. Kairi gathered the blanket closer to her and smiled.

"I've always been independent, haven't I?" she asked, but unsure herself.

"Not this much. You're like a mean, green, killing machine," Sora exaggerated, snatching the blanket off his head.

"Yeah. And you swear now. That's new, too." Riku added.

"And you didn't blush when I said 'dick'," Sora continued. Kairi threw her hands up in the air.

"Well, since when was Riku so fun to be around, no offense, and since when did he laugh so much?" Kairi gestured at Riku, whose face said, _The hell?_

"And since when were you so perverted?" Kairi pushed Sora a little with her hand to no prevail. Sora didn't budge.

"You have changed, Kairi. I like it." Sora said flirtatiously, testing her. Normally she'd roll her eyes, ignore what he was saying and change the topic. Kairi smirked back and leaned closer to his face.

"I know you do," she whispered and used both of her hands to shove him as hard as she could 'til he fell onto his back. When he did, he yelped and Kairi shrieked a little when he immediately jumped up to grab her. She ran behind Riku and placed him in between her and Sora as an obstacle.

"Oh, my _god_, guys. Not here. Talk about sexual tension." Riku groaned sarcastically. Kairi kicked him and sat down. Sora walked over to Riku, smacked his head, making the boy laugh, before sitting down next to Kairi, putting her between both of them.

Sora sighed.

"So, what _else_ don't we know about this new you?" he asked genuinely in a quieter voice. Kairi looked up at Sora, then turned to Riku. They were both looking at her with a similar expression, an unreadable one.

"Well. I'm still Kairi. Just with different edges," she said slowly.

"What are these edges?" Riku probed. Kairi pulled up her knees and hugged them.

"You guys really wanna know everything about me now?" she asked emphasizing 'now'.

"Why not?" Sora reasoned. "It's _pointless_ to go outside. The radio's not working, just buzzing off static and being unhelpful. We've got all the time in the world." Kairi glared at his reasoning even if it was probably the most logical thing he'd said the whole day.

"What, Kairi? You _scared_?" Riku mocked. Kairi sighed in frustration.

"Okay! But only if you guys spill everything about yourselves, too. I wanna know you guys." Riku nodded. "Sure. But you first," he smirked. Sora spit in his hand. "I'm in," and held it out to the other two. Even Riku stared at the hand disgustedly.

"We're gonna eat soon, Sora," Kairi said. Sora dropped his hand and looked at the two as if they were the most boring people in the world.

"Fine," he snapped half-heartedly. Kairi snorted and punched him lightly.

"Go light that fire," she commanded happily.

"Go light that fire," Sora mimicked as he got up. Riku kicked him with his foot.

"Ass," he and Kairi muttered simultaneously.

* * *

Yay! My first PULL submission, guys. I haven't written anything for Kingdom Hearts in years because my last one was a fail. No. Seriously. I'm ashamed to even be typing this author's note right now. Hopefully this one's better and somewhat of a read. Not really a drabble, not really a fic, but kind of an analysis of how the three have changed a little bit throughout the two years they've lacked each other.

Oh, and I hope you noticed that I was trying to be subtle about Kairi's and Sora's budding relationship. And maybe his and Riku's gay one. (Riku's eyes followed his best friend's movements-the hell, Blue!) So. Not much of a plot here, but just practicing on my writing. It was … _very_ fun to revisit the Kingdom Hearts side of me again. I just might resume playing the game all over again because of this.

I didn't edit this properly because I went over the time limit so any edits, grammar errors, spelling mistakes, anything at all that doesn't make sense, please feel free to tell me. Plus, feedback and reviews are good! They're very good. Yes.

They're very good.

*sigh. Erm. Okay. Keep coming back for next-next week's submission. Who knows what _that_ one's going to be about, eh? Hope this wasn't too painful to read!

-Blue-


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